At the end of chapter 3, Luke includes a genealogy that traces the line of Jesus back to Adam. While your common temptation when reading this might be to disregard it, this genealogy is very helpful in many ways. One way is that it points to the fact that Jesus is the new and better Adam. Whereas Adam ultimately sinned and brought destruction into this world, Jesus will not sin and instead He is our perfect Savior. He is the new and better Adam. As we begin chapter 4 this concept is key because we read about the temptation of Jesus, where Satan is again at work trying to get Jesus to sin. If Jesus fails, we have no hope – so there is much at stake here. However, Jesus does not fail, and there is a considerable amount to learn from our Lord in this passage.

Luke tells us that Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness and fasted the entire time. He then tells us that Jesus was hungry. Such a small sentence, yet it carries so much weight. How you do you act when you are hungry? Do you ever get hangry? Does your hunger ever control your emotions? Your actions? At the end of these forty days and at the height of his hunger, the devil tempts Jesus in an effort to lure him into sin. The devil’s three different temptations are met with three different responses of Scripture on the part of Jesus. Jesus knew the Word. He combated the enemy’s attacks with the Word of God.

In the Hebrews 4:15, we learn that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, yet he was without sin. Isn’t that amazing? What would your response be if you were in Jesus’ place in the wilderness? Would you have responded with Scripture? Do you know Scripture to combat the attacks of the enemy? In Psalm 119:11, David writes that he has hidden the word in his heart that he might not sin. Have you committed scripture to memory? Today, commit a specific verse to put to memory.